landline + broadband

[Poppy4]

hi, we currently have a bt landline and use plusnet broadband. I'm trying to upgrade the broadband but plusnet do not offer anything with a landline option. As we live in an area with poor mobile signal even outside and frequent power cuts, we are not willing to give up the landline. Is there any option to move the broadband to Bt? There isn't full fibre here + its not likely to come for a while.

[jac_95]

@Poppy4 

Here's PlusNet's FAQs about their phone service: https://www.plus.net/broadband/phone-faqs/

You maybe able to ask to switch to either BT or EE who like PlusNet are part of the BT Group of brands. EE a d BT offer a Digital landline home phone service.

To note, traditional analogue home phone services are no longer available so it will be a Digital based phone service that runs over the internet connection.

When making the order, let the customer advisor/guide know about the poor mobile service and they'll go through available solutions to allow the phone service to continue in a power cut.

See below  for more information on the switch to digital based landline phone services:

EE Digital Voice: https://ee.co.uk/broadband/digital-home-phone

BT Digital Voice: https://www.bt.com/broadband/digital-voice

More on the switch to digital based landline phone services: https://landlinesgo.digital

[iniltous]

You have a BT landline but Plusnet broadband ? , are you saying you get two separate bills , one from BT only for your telephone service  and a second broadband only bill from Plusnet ? , that’s the only way you can currently have a BT landline if Plusnet provides your broadband , and this is a very rare setup called SMPF (shared metallic path facility) most pay the same provider for both services if they have both , I suspect you currently don’t have a BT landline, and have no contractual relationship with BT , thinking all Openreach ‘lines’ are ‘BT lines’ , they are not.

PN offer a migration to BT/EE as they are the same group (sister companies) , but this will require the new telephony service to be ‘DV’ , so the phone connects to the router with the ‘drawback’ that local power is required and obviously without mitigation won’t work in a power cut …..if that’s not acceptable, stay (for now) with PN , if that’s on an uncompetitive out of contract basis, you need to chose what’s more valuable, not having the best financial deal or not being susceptible to power outages.
FYI , you can buy BBU/UPS ( battery back up , uninterruptible power supply ) to maintain the router and therefore the telephone for short power outages

[Poppy4]

Thanks iniltous for your reply. We have 2 separate bills, 1 from pn and one from BT because different people pay them. I'm trying to get them reduced to one and get a better deal. Hoping it would be easy as pn owned by bt.

[Anonymous]

To add to @iniltous's point about UPS battery backup for your router, is your current broadband service FTTC, (Fibre to the Cabinet, then copper wire to your home), or ADSL which is copper all the way from your home to the local telephone exchange?

If you are not sure, what download speeds do you currently get? ADSL offers a maximum of 24Mbps, whereas FTTC can go up to 80Mbps. (This is just a guide, not a hard rule).

This is relevant because AFAIK, the back up batteries in the green street cabinets are only spec'd to power the cabinet for up to 30 minutes if it loses mains power. After that, your broadband will go down regardless of how long your own power back up lasts for.

ADSL on the other hand is powered directly from the telephone exchange and usually benefits from backup batteries and diesel generators that will happily keep everything running for many days - even weeks in some cases!

.

[Poppy4]

Hello @Anonymous. We are on ADSL on a very basic 10Mbps out of contract deal which was good enough for us until now. Since streaming more tv, the need to upgrade is needed.

[iniltous]

SMPF , paying separate companies for telephone and broadband was the way things were  done probably more than 15 years ago when broadband was first becoming a ‘must have’ , most customers were persuaded by their broadband provider to remove BT from the equation and join the ISP for telephony as well as broadband a decade or more ago , those few that remain on SMPF will be tiny in number , probably paying way more than is necessary but will be safe (for a while ) from migration to ‘DV’ type telephony , as you can’t have two separate suppliers when on an IP telephony service like DV , but eventually these people will need to decide to move to a single supplier .

In this case , as Plusnet don’t offer telephony to new customers and want to be an ISP only , joining PN for both phone and broadband isn’t an option,   PN don’t want to be in the business of offering telephony to anyone , so the OP choice is pretty simple , join BT or EE for DV telephony and broadband for ‘free’ , no exit costs etc. it will have to be DV telephony though .

There are other options, including staying as they are with PN for the time being , but accepting it’s not good value , Jan 2027 is the current ‘final’ date for the old style telephone service.